Last-minute shopping gets more complicated

December 22, 2009 8:41:04 PM PST

PHILADELPHIA - December 22, 2009 --

The winter storm dealt store owners a major loss this past weekend. Now there are only three shopping days left until Christmas.

That means it's crunch time for shoppers and for retailers hoping to make a profit by the end of the year. Lots of people are headed to area malls. Here at Franklin Mills, it's busy - but not packed - and there are definitely deals to be had. Many stores continue to advertise savings of 50% and more.

Shoppers Action News spoke to had various reasons for waiting until today to shop. The weekend weather was a very big one. To make up for lost time, Burlington Coat Factory is one of the stores that are offering extended hours. They're open until midnight Tuesday and Wednesday.

"I normally shop from morning until afternoon, whenever I can get out, but I couldn't get out this weekend," Michelle Kephart of Northeast Philadelphia told Action News. "My kids were off from school yesterday, I was off from school. So I took the advantage of today just to hit the mall and get everything done."

"We're done. We got here early and now we're done," according to Karen Mellon of Yardley, Pa. "We couldn't go out on Saturday so we had to wait until today."

Jeff Hall and his family are from Texas and flew up Sunday to spend Christmas with relatives here. They decided to shop here rather than trying to fly with presents.

Though shopping today may seem last-minute to some, for Terry Roberts, this is early.